Gas-fired appliances that cycle on and off often have a pilot burner that provides a flame whose purpose is to light the main burner of the appliance when there is a call for heat. In some cases, pilot burners include a safety control mechanism to help ensure that if the pilot flame does not initially light or is extinguished for any reason, then the supply of gas to the gas-fired appliance is cut off.
Pilot burners for gas-fired appliances often include a pilot burner tube which defines a flame opening at one end, a thermo-electric device for detecting flame and a spark source. In some instances, the combustion chambers may become extremely hot. Since the pilot burner tube typically extends into the combustion chamber, some of this heat can be conducted by the pilot burner assembly to the thermo-electric device. Especially with new more compact designs, this heat can become excessive and can reduce the reliability and/or performance of the thermo-electric device and thus the pilot burner.